Does this city want a professional star and visionary to occupy the office of chief administrator or someone who will just keep the seat warm while the real powers that be, the politicos, continue to flail away at trying to turn this into a world class city? The next big hire at city hall will be the most important one yet – and could impact Brampton for decades to come.

Nishan Duraiappah in Peel and Peter Sloly in Ottawa are among the progressives recently named chiefs of major municipal police forces.

Their fresh perspectives could shake up entrenched police cultures that have created a divide between officers and the people they serve and lead to a more community-based approach to crime prevention.

The fate of food production will be front and centre when two billion more people populate this planet by the year 2050. A Brampton couple has started a company that blends old-style gardening with new techniques in urban agriculture to feed us with wholesome food.

While the earth battles a climate crisis, a world-wide movement called agroecology might help save us from ourselves. This is now playing itself out in full leafy colour on the streets of downtown Brampton.

With only a few days left before the start of school Ontario teachers still don’t have a new contract.

The province and union teams are negotiating quietly, but there appears to be no imminent deal before contracts expire Saturday Aug. 31. Education Minister Stephen Lecce might update the situation later today.

Amid a raft of big federal announcements for transit in the runup to this fall’s election, there’s reason for Brampton to be jealous of places like Toronto, Quebec City and London.

Neighbour Mississauga can celebrate how its provincially funded LRT is moving ahead with the choice of a project manager. But Brampton’s absence from the largesse list can be traced to city council’s dithering.

Stronger supports for survivors through the court process could result in more convictions as well as less traumatic outcomes for human trafficking victims.

It’s a big issue for Peel, which has an extremely high incidence of sex trafficking. But it’s not clear how much of a $54-million crime fund just announced by Ottawa and Queen’s Park will help the region deal with a rapid uptick in cases.

Unions aren’t speaking out on the province’s last-minute backtracking on controversial key issues — including high school class sizes. But they’re also in the thick of talks to renegotiate their contracts, which expire this Saturday. It’s not clear how the Doug Ford government’s latest decision, after months of public backlash, will affect the new school year, which begins next week.

Last week’s annual meeting of Ontario’s 400-plus municipalities featured lots of backtracking by the ruling PC government after its plans to download even more costs onto homeowners. Property taxpayers are being crippled by all the costs falling on their shoulders. If the federal and provincial governments are incapable of growing the economy to increase public funding, cities and towns have to be given more revenue tools. Otherwise, homeowners will drown in property taxes.

The city’s Cycling Advisory Committee is gearing up to submit its proposed Active Transportation Master Plan to the Brampton planning committee. The plan includes creating an ambitious cycling network. But there are big challenges to be overcome if Brampton wants to realize the dream of becoming a more active city.

Having already planned for staffing cuts in response to the PC government’s plan to dramatically increase high school class sizes, Thursday’s surprise announcement to scrap the move, just two weeks before school starts, has thrown Peel’s two public school boards into the wringer. The boards already sent layoff notices to teachers in anticipation of having fewer classes, and some courses were put on the chopping block. But now, the boards will have to scramble to recalibrate the entire high school system based on the existing classroom size caps.

Nurses and doctors in the emergency room. Lawyers working in our courts. And even firefighters who respond to a range of calls in the community.

They all brush up against the victims and perpetrators of human trafficking. For those fighting this growing global crime, certain professions that deal closely with the public, often when people are in distress, can be an invaluable resource. Building bridges with them is the first step.

Ontario’s Minister of Education Stephen Lecce announced on Wednesday the rollout of the province’s much anticipated revised sexual education curriculum.

Doug Ford had promised to scrap the Kathleen Wynne-era framework, but the new plan borrows heavily from the same approach used by the previous Liberal government, despite the premier’s election pledge. The move has left some parents in Peel upset.

A community safety plan to focus stakeholders on curbing youth violence in Peel as a new chief is set to arrive, is the key to addressing the rise in crime. A new regional plan mandated by the province is now taking shape, just as the incoming chief of police is set to take over the third largest municipal force in the country in October. He says crime has to be approached with an “upstream” strategy, tackling the root social and environmental factors that push young people in the wrong direction.

Health Minister Christine Elliott announced Monday that all municipalities across Ontario will share costs of public health funding on a 70-30 ratio. For the Region of Peel, this was good news as it will lighten the cost of paying for public health. The region has previously covered 37 percent of the pricetag. But Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown warns that provincial cuts in other areas will pose a significant challenge for the city’s taxpayers.

It only takes one spark to light a local politician into action on behalf of a worthwhile cause. The rising rate of human trafficking in our cities should propel our local leaders to join advocacy efforts around the world.

The ongoing annual meeting of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario is the perfect place for the latest warrior in the fight against this modern form of slavery to emerge. All it takes is for the light to be switched on.

A big step toward achieving GO train service that runs all day, both ways, through Brampton is coming in September. Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney, along with Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster, announced the addition of scores of new trips on several lines, including 50 new trains per week on the Kitchener line.

The game at the annual conference of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario is simple: give a provincial minister what amounts to an elevator pitch for priority projects that need the big bucks. Councillors get 15 minutes to present their wants — a new LRT, a new hospital — to each minister and see if they can make their priorities stick. Here’s what Brampton councillors will be pitching in Ottawa starting today.

Journalist John Ivison has penned a profile of Justin Trudeau, as Brampton voters and many other Canadians decide whether or not the son of a formidable former leader has what it takes to steer our country during these politically volatile times.

Ceremonies marking the independence of Pakistan and India on consecutive days this week brought together two Brampton communities. It was a refreshing opportunity to mingle, despite international tensions in the background over Kashmir. The two countries have a long history of animosity since they were carved from a singular entity; in one of the world’s most diverse cities, the communities strive to celebrate their shared Canadian values, while leaving behind the decades-old tensions that define bitter attitudes in the sub-continent.

Four officers who resigned from the Peel police service last month accepted a one-year conditional sentence after admitting to obstructing justice following a bizarre theft of a Scarface movie character’s statue from an accused man’s storage unit.

The criminal defence lawyer who brought the theft — and their lies about it — to light thinks neither the police service nor the court went far enough in making an example of them.

The provincial government’s list of contributions to Brampton healthcare this year includes more than $2.5 million for mental health and addictions services. But it says it’s still waiting for capital planning submissions for the single infrastructure project that’s already on the books: phase two of Peel Memorial Centre, a preventative wellness facility that offers traditional and alternative health care.

Brampton has committed to working seriously on developing a new environmental institute that will coordinate green activities and advise council on a broad range of decisions that affect sustainability.

The city has hired a consultant to work on refining the concept. But David Laing, who leads a group developing and championing the idea, has concerns about what direction the municipality wants to take the project — and how citizen advocates will or won’t be involved in shaping it.

Nish Duraiappah will be the first Ontario police chief of South Asian heritage when he takes over the Peel Police Service in October. But in a wide-ranging interview with The Pointer, the Twitter-savvy father of three waves off that historic point to reflect on the changing community role of policing, how to build a progressive, diverse and forward-thinking police force in Peel, and ways to curb violent crime before it happens.

In a police service described as “change-averse,” the widely praised Halton Region deputy chief has a steep challenge ahead.

Money to add 168 new long-term care beds is good news for Brampton, but that’s a drop in the bucket in this fast-growing city. Here’s a look at how Vaughan and other cities around Ontario are benefiting from millions in provincial healthcare dollars, while Brampton continues to cope with a single full-service hospital too small for its burgeoning population.

Council voted last week to establish a committee to find a replacement CAO, but it’s not clear why it took so long.

The city’s top job has been occupied temporarily by Joseph Pittari, who is rotating back to his old position as commissioner of corporate services. Al Meneses will serve as acting CAO in the interim, just another round of the musical chairs game afflicting senior management.

Raj Grewal, the controversial Brampton East MP, has largely stayed mum and dodged media attention since remaining in Parliament as an independent, after being kicked out of the Liberal caucus last November amid a gambling scandal. But with the federal election around the corner, his silence about whether he plans to run again has added tension rather than dispersing it.

It’s just over a week before the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference, a sort of speed-advocacy forum where cities make their case to the province for a range of funding needs. Mayor Patrick Brown says that if the Ford government doesn’t deliver on some key issues, the ruling Conservatives will end up going the way of their predecessors and lose their seats in Brampton.

Less than a year ago, Brampton’s hopes for a thriving university campus downtown were dashed by a $90-million snub by the Doug Ford government. Councillors meeting today will ponder a proposal that could renew those hopes. Algoma, a tiny Northern Ontario university, hopes to grow its Brampton campus by introducing “high demand” programs in fields such as computer science, psychology and community economics for at least 1,000 students.

If the federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau goes ahead with a ban on single-use plastics, it will have plenty of local support, judging from The Pointer’s informal survey of residents. Climate change and the health of our oceans are big concerns for lots of people. But most say they want to make sure good options are available when the ban goes into effect starting in 2021.

Recent research raises concern about the state of our youth, particularly girls and young women. Increasing rates of anxiety and self-harm are being reported across the country. But researchers are unsure of the cause.

Increased time on screens and the expectations created by many social media platforms, or other unknowns that lurk in the dark corners of the cyberworld, could be part of the problem. But no one seems to know exactly why rates of anxiety among youth are increasing so dramatically.

He’s the best person for the job. That’s the message about incoming Peel police chief Nishan Duraiappah, who takes over at the start of October. He has a rocky hill to climb, with a force plagued by recent controversies.

A status quo approach to stick with an internal hire was the politically safe move for Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie and Brampton’s Patrick Brown. But they chose instead to do the right thing. Public safety and building trust with the community drove the two leaders to find their man, despite all the pressure they faced.

Brampton’s international Global Twenty20 cricket tournament being played over two weeks at the CAA Centre, attracting some of the best bowlers and batsmen around the globe, highlights the game’s promise in a country that has long had a fringe interest in the sport.

Speeding it up for 21st century tastes might just be the key to growing a wildly popular pastime that enjoys a cult following in many other parts of the world.

It has been four years since an infamous vote in 2015 effectively killed the Main Street LRT. It has since been revived, but the debate has changed: will it run on the surface or in a tunnel? A whole host of issues will need to be pored over before any shovels go in the ground to build the better transit Brampton needs.

A $108-million processor to be built on Orenda Road in Brampton will change the way composting is done in Peel Region, producing not only agricultural fertilizer but a non-fossil form of natural gas — and in a way that eliminates the “stinky air” issue.

It’s all part of Peel’s ambitious plan to divert 75 percent of curbside waste collection from landfills.

A Sri Lankan-born officer with a sterling reputation as a deputy chief in neighbouring Halton Region will take over the helm of the Peel Regional Police Service in October.

Duraiappah is being hailed as “an inspirational and aspirational leader” and the “next generation of leadership,” who will bring fresh perspectives and innovation to policing in Peel. His hiring offers a chance for a police service living under a cloud of systemic discrimination, inside and outside, to open a new chapter.

Today’s political scene is riddled with nasty and brutish attack ads and the polarization of positions, which makes many long for a quieter and gentler time when talk was civil and voters churned out leaders like Brampton’s Bill Davis, the old lion of provincial politics who celebrated a major milestone this week.

An ongoing study finds financial instability may be one reason for a seemingly high incidence of sex-for-money trades by international students studying at Sheridan College and elsewhere in Peel Region.

That raises concern about the vulnerability of students to becoming victims of sex trafficking in a region with a human trafficking rate double the national average.

Monday’s announcement that the province would work on developing a “needs-based” support program in consultation with parents and experts came as welcome news to families with autistic children who have protested sweeping changes to autism support. Minister Todd Smith apologized for the anxiety a misbegotten plan had caused. But the changes won’t come until next spring, leaving many families in Brampton and across the province in limbo.

Brampton will be getting eight electric buses as part of a trial for new “plug-and-play” recharging equipment that may make it possible to keep them on the road nearly non-stop.

But Monday’s federal announcement by Environment Minister Catherine McKenna echoes a very similar one from the province a year earlier, when the Kathleen Wynne government promised $13 million towards the same thing.